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Well, today at 9:30 A.M. I go on the air with one of our local radio station, live, for an interview about the book, the signing, and my being TG. Am I nervous? You bet your bippy I am! Then, as if that isn't stressful enough, at Noon I go to the Chautauqua Mall for a television bit about the signing!
I expect to be a bundle of raw nerve endings for most of the morning, but hopefully I'll be a bit better after the radio bit. Then, tomorrow at 2P.M. I have the book signing. Egad! Can I do all this? Am I going to make an absolute fool of myself? Am I fooling myself that I can present well enough so I don't look like an old man wearing his wife's clothes and makeup...badly?
There will be several of my friends at the mall with me for the signing, and that will help some, but for this morning, and the television deal, I'll be pretty much by myself except for my housemate, Tina.
God, just please don't let me get laughed at. I'm very frightened about all of this right now. Oh I know that I come across on the internet as a pretty self-confident gal, but inside, I am just a mass of insecurities and fears.
You might laugh, but this is the biggest thing I have ever done, and I'm just not sure I can 'pull it off.' Of course I'm going to give it my best shot, but I can't shake the feeling that this whole thing is going to blow up in my face. The one thing I really fear is not for me, but what failure can mean for all the rest of you! In truth, the only reason I'm doing any of this is to try to help every writer out there who might be thinking about publishing their work and getting THEIR book 'out there.'
If I end up doing badly, it gives the 'straights' a wrong impression of TGs as a group, and we already have enough bad examples to live down. All I can promise all of you is that I will do my best and hope that'll be enough.
So, wish me luck, and cross your fingers for me. If I don't suffer a total meltdown, I'll update this after I get back from the television shoot, maybe even after the radio bit.
A very scared,
Catherine Linda Michel
Comments
It'll be just fine....
You'll see. You'll be just fine. You're bound to have butterflies in the tummy now,. Anybody would have. But they can be made to help. They are there to tell you that this is a special day. That it is your special day and that you are special.
So go out there and enjoy it. And tomorrow's book signing as well. Go out there and milk it for all it's worth. Make it last for ever. And if not ever, because you must leave room for other special days in the future, then for long enough to make up for all those other days in the past which weren't perhaps so special.
And we'll all be thinking of you, and wishing that we could be there with you to witness, to be part of, this your special day.
So go out and enjoy it.
Have a ball.
Hugs,
Knock 'em dead cookie
Well, give it your best shot anyway!
I envy you in some ways and not - definitely not, in others.
I don't do well in crowds - hence living in the country, but this isn't about me.
I sincerely hope you have a good time of it and it's successful. Maybe one day we'll see your name on that bestseller list eh?
Good luck
NB
My Dear Catherine
You will look like what you are -- a sincere person with a good heart.
What you look like on the outside is not proof of anything about how you feel inside. Don't get caught up in that game. You are affirming your feminine self through an elected style of dress.
Keep in mind these themes.
1.) About 1% of the general population is TG.
2.) Like homosexuality, the psychiatric community has come to realize being transgendered has more to do with nature than nurture, although nurture can and does play a role.
3.) The incidence of homosexuality within the transgendered community is about the same as in the general population. Therefore 90% of those who are transgendered are heterosexual.
4.) The problem with being transgendered is the guilt and shame inflicted upon people for being different. Being transgendered in itself is not a mental illness.
5.) Gender is multi-faceted, certainly not binary and not a spectrum -- much more complicated.
5.) TG authors are seeking to understand themselves through self-exploration and to raise the level of TG understanding in those who read their stories. TG authors can't be stereotyped. They run the gamut from ultra-liberal to ultra-conservative, femme fatales to macho men. The themes within TG literarture are as varied as those within litarature as whole: adventure, fantasy, romance, mystery, are but a few.
Good luck. You'll do great.
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
Anglea gave good advice at least to my ear
Also, being on TV is easy, I've been on camera dozens of times, albit as a phone operator at a PBS studeo durning pledge drives so it's not a *speaking* part but it is *live*.
You'll do fine, probably. Even if you turn into a Floyd R Turbo -- a Johnny Carson character -- and freeze like a deer in the headlights and prattle on like a drunk Bubba from a trailer park, it is not the end of the World.
There feel better now?
I hope I made you laugh. Have some fun and relax.
John in Wauwatosa
John in Wauwatosa
Best of Luck, My Friend!
Very big HUGS and best wishes to you, Cathy. I'm sure you'll exceed expectations!
I do think you're taking this whole coming-out in public thing a bit too far, though. I can't think of anyone else I know who's arranged press briefings, public appearances, radio and television interviews just to come out! Maybe if you were President... LOL
Damn, when I first met you, you wouldn't wear your heels out of the house, and here you are! Goodness, girl. You don't do things by half measures, do you?
Just promise me one thing? When you start doing your appearances on daytime television, could you please skip Jerry Springer's show?
Hope you have/are having a wonderful day
As long as the interviewers are respectful, I'm sure you'll do fine. They want to make it good for the news so they should help you relax some beforehand...I think...as long as you are yourself, you'll be great.
Best of Luck!!
Alexis
She did it!
I had a quick chat with Cathy right before she was headed out to do the TV spot. She reported that the radio interview went well.
Best wishes my friend!
hugs!
grover